Location Scout Resource: Tools + Utilities 2

More tools and resources for location scouts and other production folks – continued from:

is a collection of various (mostly) electronic tools I know (because I have used…) or I think might be useful for a location scout, location manager or other production person. Could be a website (with an online “tool” (?), software, etc. Most are free, but if there is some cost involved, I’ll try to mention it.

Template for Recording Location Scout Data

Location Scouting template

Page template that can be used to record and evaluate location sites for filming

In my Nuts and Bolts Filmmaking book, chapter 5 includes instructions for performing a location scout. Location scouting for a film is greatly simplified if you use a standard form to record information about the locations when you visit them.

…rambling…

I usually just take off on a location scouting job with my cameras, a compass and a notebook; the Location Scouting Template seems a little more organized, I might try it next time out.

Curious if there is a little script or program for location scouting notes that could be used in a pda? …not that I was ever that much of a “pda person”… I bought a Handspring Visor (obsolete?) a couple of years ago and seems like all it ever did was sit in its recharger cradle (the rechargable battery seems to be “kaputt” now…replacement available? cost? (I heard they were expensive?), if I took the Visor out I would always seem to forget I did that, the battery would run down, I’d lose all my phone numbers and addresses and I’d have to set it up all over again and synch it; it just never quite fit completely into my “modus operandi”.

A lot of times I have to take a laptop location scouting anyway and I have an address book in that, phone numbers of any immediate importance get scribbled down in notes or are in my cellphone…

Nowadays with Android Tablets, Android Phones, iPhones and iPads it is possible to manage much of our location data digitally.

Did you know? Ipod 80gb Classic seems to have an address book and calendar but I haven’t really played with those parts of it yet, been pretty busy getting my music loaded in it. …but the Ipod is *Great*!- I’m just lovin’ it!

I also bought this book back in the ’90’s and lent it to an associate who never returned it!

The person I loaned it to knew very little of location scouting and location management and since I never got the book back I can only assume they found it very useful…

Perhaps this novice level of reader was the target audience; the book does give some of the basic ‘mechanics’ and duties expected of a location professional but does not go into the many intracies of diplomacy and, as an example, being able to purvey to a lay property owner in a succinct way what you are doing, what production will be doing, what is expected of them and what is in it for them.

…I went on to say (among other things) that I thought the book needed an update, the book was grounded in ’80’s – ’90’s vintage technology and I didn’t think the book accurately addressed current challenges and practices of a digital-age location scout.

Location Scouting and Management Handbook is currently out of print. The copy I bought was a paperback edition (as is currently listed on Amazon…) when I bought it new it was maybe $20 – $25:

Location Scout Resource: BananAlbum!

BananAlbum is a highly customizable image viewing application which enables you to create single albums or a full featured portfolio site.

Bananalbum itself is a skin that needs to be dropped into a local installation of JAlbum (Windows), a free photo album creation program. Bananalbum creates the necessary files for the web photo album, which you then upload to your website. All these tasks can be completed inside a running copy of JAlbum. If you are using a Mac, look on the Bananalbum website, there is Album Creator for Mac.

You can only display ALL your Flickr photos this way (hey, whatta you want? it’s free) and admittedly your Flickr photos page can do the same thing. (Here’s mine).

bananr.com is very simple: Just surf to bananr.com, follow the instructions to retrieve your Flickr i.d. using idgettr and plug it in to the bananr.com form and away you go!There are more options available if you download and install Bananr to your own website.

How did Casablanca affect the home front during World War II? What is the postfeminist significance of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? The Journal of Popular Film and Television answers such far-ranging questions by using the methods of popular culture studies to examine commercial film and television, historical and contemporary. Articles discuss networks, genres, series, and audiences, as well as celebrity stars, directors, and studios.

Journal of Popular Film and Television (print: ISSN 0195-6051, online: ISSN 1930-6458) is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Routledge, which purchased it from Heldref Publications in 2009. Michael Marsden, who was the dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Northern Michigan University in the late 1990s, co-founded the journal. The journal began in 1972.

The Film Literature Index (FLI) annually indexes 150 film and television periodicals from 30 countries cover-to-cover and 200 other periodicals selectively for articles on film and television. The periodicals range from the scholarly to the popular. More than 2,000 subject headings provide detailed analysis of the articles.

Twitter announced it would be adding locations to your tweets back in August, and they’ve been making changes to their API to enable the functionality since late September. The geolocation functionality is now complete, and a number of developers of third-party apps who have been working on building location support into their applications should begin rolling out the new features soon.

Montclair State University’s Film Forum brings prominent contemporary filmmakers to campus to screen their films and speak about their work and the profession. Sponsored by the Filmmaking Program of the College of the Arts, the screening and discussion series is held every Tuesday from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. in University Hall Room 1040, and is free and open to all students and the general public.

As in previous years, the Forum will feature noted industry professionals and filmmakers such as Henry Bean, writer of INTERNAL AFFAIRS, award-winning writer/director of THE BELIEVER, and Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, producers of the award winning film TROUBLE THE WATER, as well as Michael Moore’s FAHRENHEIT 9/11 and BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE.. The Forum offers a unique opportunity for audiences to hear personal inside stories and to ask questions of some of the most successful and innovative filmmakers working today.

If you are a bona fide film production company or other relevant film or broadcast industry professional and there is room in your organization to help a film student gain some valuable industry experience please contact Professor Pemberton.

With vital information in all areas of industry standardized AICP (Association of Independendent Commercial Producers) bid form, film and videotape production information is now more accessible allowing for thorough and professional research, estimating, pre-production, and post-production.

Google Custom Search (formerly known as Google Co-op) is a platform provided by Google that allows web developers to feature specialized information in web searches, refine and categorize queries and create customized search engines, based on Google Web Search. Google launched the service on May 10, 2006.

With Google Custom Search, you can harness the power of Google to create a customized search experience for your own website.

Dummies Location Scout Book

Yep, there HAD to be one 😉 The ubiquitous “…For Dummies” page- for location scouting… 😉

After you’ve locked down your script – meaning there are no more changes – comb through it and determine where you want to shoot your scenes. Some software programs, like Screenwriter 2000, actually break down your script for you by pulling out all your scene headings and generating a list of settings from your screenplay.

Blog Search is Google search technology focused on blogs. Google is a strong believer in the self-publishing phenomenon represented by blogging, and we hope Blog Search will help our users to explore the blogging universe more effectively, and perhaps inspire many to join the revolution themselves.

Search below for blog content on a variety of location services and production topics via Google Blog Search results:

Location Scout Movie Website Widgets

I made a Movie Widgets Page, containing several WidgetBox movie information widgets but alas, WidgetBox has changed their business model and the movie widgets are nowhere to be found 🙁 (at least they are not where they used to be? 🙁 … Widgets were HUGE (sort of…) in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century. Now the term seems to mean something similar… but different – “Widget” usually refers to a mobile smartphone application that displays information on the viewing screen of the smartphone.

Here are a couple of IMDB-related Google Gadgets – pretty much as close as you come any more to the thingamajigger formerly known as “widgets” ;). The Google Gadgets Page is a pretty big mess itself these days, half the gadets don’t work – so depending on when you read this post the gadgets may or may not work themselves.

Videomaker’s Editors have compiled this list of what they think are the most useful video editing and video related software downloads on the Web. If you have any suggestions of products you think we should add to this list, please email your suggestions to our Editorial department.